Thursday, April 3, 2014

T-Mobile & Blackberry Call it Quits--Well Sort Of

Blackberry has had it's fair share of woes over the past few years as it saw it's once dominant marketshare dwindle to practically less than 1% in the last survey of the likes of Apple, Android, Windows mobile OS's. Adding insult to injury is how T-Mobile recently offered those who carried Blackberry smartphones a $200 minimum trade in on their trusty Blackberry towards any iPhone, Android device, or Windows smartphone. The "UnCarrier" decided that most of its subscribers really don't care if Blackberry rides off into the sunset, they just want to keep those customers on some other platform. While Blackberry has itself to blame for not jumping on the touch-screen revolution, they are down, but not out. Blackberry's instant messenger BBM recently launched on Android and iOS and was number one on their respective App stores for days--giving Blackberry a comeback of sorts. But consumers are trading in their once coveted Crackberry devices in droves in favor of Android and iOS. Following T-Mobile's recent taunt of Blackberry, the uncarrier was all but excommunicated from Blackberry's list of carriers who could sell Blackberry devices effective April 25. This means if you want to buy a Blackberry, you'll have to go to Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T for one after that date. But is this a wise decision for Blackberry at a time where it needs carrier support more than ever, especially now that they are not the only game available to Federal workers and Department of Defense applications now that iOS and Android devices are approved for use on those networks? Probably not. But T-Mobile's CEO John Legere is claiming that Blackberry is and always will be welcome on T-Mobile, and says this was a Blackberry decision. Will something change before the deadline? No one knows, but if Blackberry wants to be relevant again, it can't thumb it's nose at any carrier, be it the number one or number 4 carrier. Time to mend fences kids for everyone's sake.

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